THE WORD OF GOD

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Jn 1:1

AND THE WORD BECAME FLESH

“The conception and birth of Jesus Christ are in fact the greatest work accomplished by the Holy Spirit in the history of creation and salvation…”
Pope John Paul II, The Holy Spirit in the Life of the Church and the World (#50)

“If God seems at times to be slow in responding, it is because he is preparing a better gift. He will not deny us. We well know that the long awaited gift is all the more precious for the delay in its being granted….Ask, seek, insist. Through the asking and seeking you will be better prepared to receive God’s gift when it comes. God withholds what you are not yet ready for. He wants you to have a lively desire for his greatest gifts. All of which is to say, pray always and do not lose heart.” St. Augustine on prayer from Sermon 61: 6-7.

A recent Marist poll commissioned by the Knights of Columbus again showed that — when presented with clear choices in a polling question — only 8% of Americans favor abortion on demand throughout pregnancy. The poll also found that 60% of Americans favor banning all abortions, or limiting them to the rare cases of danger to the mother’s life, rape or incest. Click here for poll results.

The Catholic Bishops pledged (at their recent November meeting) the resources of the Church to mobilize the Catholic community to oppose FOCA and all other attempts to eliminate existing pro-life laws and policies. This will include a massive education and postcard campaign beginning in January, urging members of Congress to reject the abortion extremism of FOCA.

Here are some encouraging quotes from individual Bishops attending the recent Bishop’s meeting:

“We have lost 50 times as many children in the last 35 years as we have lost soldiers in all the wars since the Revolution. Any bishop here would be willing, would consider it a privilege, to die tomorrow if it meant ending abortion,” he said. “We should dedicate the rest of our lives to taking any kind of criticism, whatever it is, to stop this horrible genocide.” Auxiliary Bishop Robert Hermann

Chicago Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Paprocki said FOCA would have a “significant and adverse effect” and that bishops “need to be prepared in the face of increasingly militant threats to unborn life. The next step would be for federal law to require abortions by all hospitals, including Catholic hospitals, which we cannot do,” he said. “We’d need to consider taking the drastic step of closing our Catholic hospitals completely.”

“One cannot compromise between the fire and the fire department, the fly and the fly swatter. There are things that don’t admit of compromise – and vile … intrinsic evil such as abortion do not admit us any such compromise.” Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska

Bishop Joseph F. Martino said the bishops must concentrate on reaching out to Catholic politicians who disagree with them, even if they have to threaten excommunication in the same way that bishops in St. Louis and New Orleans threatened segregationist Catholic officials in 1947 and 1962.